Lets Talk Doggy Daycare!

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Doggy daycare comes up constantly in my training sessions, especially with adolescent dogs.

But I do not look at daycare as some magical fix for every dog.

I look at it as one possible ingredient in the recipe.

For the right dog, a well-run daycare can provide exercise, social interaction, environmental exposure, and an outlet for energy that can make the rest of the week easier.

For the wrong dog—or at the wrong daycare—it can create an entirely different set of problems.

How Do You Choose a Doggy Daycare?

Do not just pick the closest place.

Call several facilities and ask questions.

One of the first things I want to know is whether they separate dogs by:

• Size
• Age
• Temperament
• Play style

A 100-pound adolescent dog should not necessarily be playing with a tiny Chihuahua. An older dog with sore hips probably should not spend the day getting body-slammed by a teenage pit bull.

Ask how many dogs are in each playgroup, how often they get breaks, how the staff is trained, how long employees typically stay, and how closely the dogs are actually supervised.

I generally prefer a daycare with more of a training vibe than a warehouse full of dogs thrown together and expected to figure it out.

Be Honest About Your Dog

If your dog is reactive, fearful, socially awkward, or has struggled around other dogs, tell the daycare.

Some dogs may need to start with very short visits and slowly build up. A good facility may be willing to help with that process.

And some dogs simply are not daycare dogs.

That is okay.

What If Doggy Daycare Is Not a Good Fit?

One alternative mentioned in this episode is Sniffspot, which allows you to rent private spaces where your dog can exercise without being surrounded by unfamiliar dogs.

https://www.sniffspot.com/

That can be extremely useful for reactive dogs or dogs that simply prefer having space.

The episode also discusses helping dogs learn—or relearn—appropriate canine body language and social skills, including play bows, look-aways, lip licking, and other signals dogs use to communicate.

Daycare Is Part of the Recipe

For some families, even one consistent day per week can help.

For others, Monday-Wednesday-Friday daycare can create a rhythm where the dog gets an outlet every other day and the family gets a more manageable dog in between.

It can also be useful when bringing a puppy into a household with an older dog, giving the older dog regular breaks from the youngster.

But daycare is not going to fix every training issue.

It may be one ingredient along with training, veterinary care, exercise, enrichment, management, and good daily routines.

Consistency and frequency still matter more than looking for one quick fix.

K.I.S.S. Dog Training
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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hello and welcome to another Kiss Dumb Training Podcast episode with professionally certified dump trainer Mike Deef. Is Dunky Daycare part of your demon's weekly activities? It's a great way to social measure pump, and some enter training in daycare can be a bonus. Mike is coming up with a million.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Okay. Well, the last um, I don't know, three or four um videos or podcasts that we've done, the topic of doggy daycare always comes up as part of the recipe to uh training a dog. Um you know, I'm I'm kind of a big believer, and this is one of the topics coming up is the difference between an ingredient list and a recipe. Um you know, you can your recipe tells you how to do things and tells you how to do it successfully. An ingredient list is all the things that you know you're gonna need to follow that recipe. Um so I would say that doggy daycare is one of those things that falls into the ingredient list and also the recipe. Um in a lot of cases, if I had a dollar for every single one of my clients that um started doggy daycare and was consistent and frequent with it, especially with adolescent dogs, um, that would then turn around and you know respond or you know, comment to me or just say it straight to me while we were training, why didn't you force me to do this earlier? Well, um you can't you can't force anybody to do anything. And let's face it, with the economy um and the way things are going financially, it's tough on everybody. And it's just one more expense. And this is kind of one of the reasons we are always talking about be ready for a dog when you get it, know what you're getting into, know the expenses. Um dogs are not cheap. But all that being said, doggy daycare is not perfect for all dogs. Okay. If your dog is reactive on leash, doesn't like dogs, uh, would rather be around people. Uh this is something I would definitely have a conversation with a professional trainer, or maybe your veterinarian, or maybe both. Hey, is this a good idea? Um not all dogs are going to be great at the dog park. Not all dogs are gonna be great at doggy daycare. Uh the difference between the dog park and doggy daycare, you do have employees at a doggy daycare, which are you know intended to be uh, you know, monitoring the situation, making sure that the playgroups are not too full. We'll get into more of that kind of stuff as we go on. But I do uh feel that maybe doggy daycares are safer than dog parks because dog parks are only as good as the people inside the park. So the question is, how are you going to choose a doggy daycare? Well, for me, there's a couple of really critical things you gotta do and ask. And I guess before I even talk about those, it is your job as the dog's owner to call and interview doggy daycares. Much like you did maybe if you have kids, you interviewed pediatricians. You didn't just, you know, uh just pick one willy-nilly and go. You either got a recommendation from a friend or you called and talked to several pediatricians. So you're gonna have to call four or five doggy daycares in your area and ask some pretty specific questions, okay? Um, the first one I always ask is do you separate by size, age, and temperament? Those are the things I think are important. So, why is size important? Um, I have big dogs, great Peronese mixes. I've had a Leonberger, um, I like those big hairy hundred-pounders, okay? Um, if my dog is friendly as I'll get out and loves other dogs, but is playing with a teacup chihuahua and they pounce and they play bow, they could snap the neck or back of a little tiny dog. So we don't want bigs and dogs, big and small dogs together. Now, like I talked about in the last episode, is there's exceptions to every rule. These are not hard and fast, but they're pretty close to, okay? So size is important. Age, why is that important? Well, if I've got an eight-year-old German shepherd who is starting to have issues with their hips and slowing down, put in a playgroup with a you know 14-month-old uh pit bull adolescent, that's a recipe for a dog an argument. I mean, you're gonna have one dog who wants to play, wants to body slam, wants to take out some energy, and you got another dog who I'd rather just go sit over there and lay in the sunshine and just you know be myself. So we should we should be separating our groups by age as well. Okay. And then temperament, okay. Um, temperament could be everything from dog reactive to um just wants to play really hard. And we're not gonna put the really hard players in with the the shire, you know, dogs. So you need to have a doggy daycare that has some experience, has some knowledge, knows how to read body language, has a little bit of a training vibe. Um, one thing I always tell folks is when you are interviewing doggy daycares, you're gonna get one of two vibes. One, a warehouse, where we just put 30 or 40 dogs on a concrete pad and hope for the best. Or, you know, more of a training vibe where, hey, look, you we separate this way, this is the max number in each group. Um, they're out for this amount of time, then we give them a little bit of a break, and then they go back out, and the different play groups go to different spots, and we've got four different play groups. You know, so you're gonna get a vibe of what you like. I always like more of the training vibe, okay?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

If you like the topics you've been listening to, remember that Mike has written tons of books on dunk training, and all are available on Amazon.com. Plus, you can also find them all on audible.com and audiobooks. And you can even get them in print on Mike's Website, kissdongtraining.com. Just search the web for KissDom Training or Mike D. D-E-A-T-H-E. Before we get to Mike, allow us to take a quick pledge break. Must be host or podcast, and you can find us at any of your favorite podcast providers by simply searching for Kiss Dog Training or Mike Dief. You can also find a direct link to our podcast on our website, KissDogtraining.com, by looking in the about tab and just clicking on the more podcast. It's at that link where you'll find a subscription link where you can donate as little as $3 a month to help us provide monthly podcasts and information on positive, science-based training methods for dogs and their owners. And we would appreciate that help so much. Choosing a daycare for your dog is more than just finding a place that's close by. It's finding a place that is good about matching energy levels, personalities, and needs to create harmony for the dogs in their care. If you love your dogs like we do, there is a lot to consider. Mike is back now to help answer all those questions and more. Here's Mike.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

I think another thing that's going to be really important once you have made all of your calls and you're getting down to picking one, add another question to your list, which is about staffing. Um, I don't think enough people ask about, you know, uh, you know, what's your turnover? How long have your employees been with you? Are you fully staffed? Um, you know, with the way the world is right now, it's hard to find employees, um, and it's even harder to find great employees. Um, it blows me away how many times you will see a video. You know, a lot of the daycares now have the ability having live streams where you can go on and you can watch your dog play. It blows me away knowing that the employees know that there is a video camera in the room and they're still on their cell phones, they're not paying attention to the dogs. Um, so um, you know, obviously ask about the staffing. I think you need to look at reviews. I think you need to talk to your friends with dogs and ask them where they go. Um, talk to your veterinarian, talk to your trainer. You know, everybody's gonna have an opinion and give you more information so that you're not making that snap decision. You're making a good, solid decision, both for you, your family, your economy, and your dog. Okay. Um, pricing. Um, this is something that has only happened um here in the last year or two. But it used to be that like you could buy packages. You know, I'm gonna buy 30 days worth of doggy day care. I may only use it Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or just Tuesday, Thursday, and I can make it, you know, kind of spread it out and I can be consistent with the time I go in. Um, but there used to also be a half day package. So with you know, with everybody working from home, you know, they may take the kids to school, drop the kids off, take the dog-to-doggy daycare, come home, work for five or six hours, then be able to go and pick up the dog, bring them home. And it used to be okay, it's gonna be 28 bucks for a full day, it's gonna be 14 for a half day. Well, unfortunately, now um a lot of places are like, you know, it's $28 for a full day of doggy day care, and it's $22 for a half day. Um, now it could be a little different. It may be that, you know, a full day is 12 hours and a half day is six or seven hours, and that may have something to do with it. But again, these are things to ask. Um, if you're like a lot of my clients who are like, look, we would really love to do this, but we just can't afford it. And, you know, Lord knows you can only do what you can afford, but maybe one day of daycare a week, and you pick the same day a week and you go and you know that next day is going to be easier. Um, so talk about pricing when you're talking to them on the phone. Um, the other will be willingness to work with you. Um, there are a lot of doggy daycares that the minute they find that they've got a little bit of a problem child on their hands, um, immediately just we we can't we can't help you with this dog. And I think their their vibe is they want an entire um group of easy dogs. Um, those are also a lot of times the doggy daycares that will have much larger play groups and they only want dogs that get along. Um, one of my favorite doggy daycares um has and um always will be um a place here in Kansas Kansas City called Broadmore Kennels. Um, and they would go, okay, we only put eight to ten dogs in a playgroup. They're out for 30 minutes or so, then they go back and take a little break, and then the next group comes out, and they had each group set up with like two or three different play groups that you know, play areas, and by size and age and temperament, but they knew, you know, this group of dogs, they would always color coordinate them. So the the the blue dogs always played with the blue dogs, the green dogs only played with the green dogs, you know, the pink dogs only played with the pink dogs, and they would spend time making sure, okay, you're gonna go out, you're gonna play, you're gonna come back, you're gonna relax. And it never got more than 10 dogs in a playgroup. But if you didn't ask those questions, I think it's important. Um, you would never know this. So um if you have one that kind of has more of a warehousing vibe and you know you've got a problematic dog, um that's probably not gonna be a good fit for you. Now, the other aspect here is don't hide things from the doggy daycare. If you've got a challenging dog and you're trying to add doggy daycare as the recipe for this kind of scenario, um be totally upfront and honest. You know, you may even let me put it this way. I tell my clients all the time: if you've got a problematic dog with other dogs and we're trying to kind of rehab the situation, you may have to pay for a full day of doggy daycare, and your dog is only gonna be there 30 minutes to an hour for the first month each session. You know, we're just gonna go in, we're gonna get used, we're gonna normalize, desensitize, kind of being in the environment, we're gonna build up from there. You're gonna find some doggy daycares that are willing to do that, some that are not. But if you're not honest up front and telling the doggy daycare what's going on, then they're gonna call you the first day you're at daycare and go, This isn't gonna work, you're gonna need to come pick up your dog. Okay. Um we talked about it originally. This is not something that is a quick fix, but I tell my clients all the time: if you can do Monday, Wednesday, Friday doggy daycare and your dog is good at it and enjoys it, all keys to the situation working. You know you take the dog on Monday. Tuesday's gonna be a lot easier because the dog's worn out. You take the dog on Wednesday, Thursday's easier. You take the dog on Friday, Saturday's easier. Well, Sunday, your dog may be a pain in the butt again and full of energy, but you know you're taking them back on Monday, and who knows? Maybe you can take them for a longer walk on Sunday. With the busy life we lead, and sometimes people not picking or knowing what they're getting into, you're gonna need this help. Um, another good example is people who will go out and get a puppy and have an older dog in the house. Well, doggie daycare is awesome because now all of a sudden you can take the younger dog to daycare three days a week, which gives the older dog a break. So there's all sorts of ways, parts, and reasons we can do it. Um, you know, one of the final things, you know, talk about some other resources that we're going to include here in the video. Um, sniffspot.com. It's a great website. Um, it is a place where you can go rent by the hour, half hour, every two hours, depending on how it's set up with the individual. A fenced-in area where you know you're going to be the only person there. Okay. So if you do have that dog reactive dog and you can't take him to the dog parking, you can't take him to doggy daycare, then maybe Sniff Spot would be a great thing for you to look at. And we'll kind of link it here and let you kind of um do some research and see it on your own. We're also going to put maybe a video on doggy daycare that you can kind of go look at, things I've talked about here, but maybe um older stuff that I've done in the past. And then we'll link to a blog of how to pick a good doggy daycare and how to help a dog relearn to speak dog. Because if a dog's been raised not around dogs, they don't know what a playbow is. They don't know what a look away is, they don't know what licking the lips mean. You know, all these dog body languages that dogs send back and forth to each other to go, I'm comfortable, I'm not comfortable, come forward, go away. It can be really hard to reteach that, okay? But doggy daycare can be one of the greatest ways you can kind of do this. So kind of think about it from this standpoint. Doggy daycare isn't going to fix all your issues, but it might be the bay leaf in chicken soup that you wouldn't think one little leaf in chicken soup would make a big difference, but it does. It may be that, it may be working with a veterinarian or a trainer, or you may have to do all of those things at once. So don't look for the quick fix, don't look for the one thing that's going to change it. Be consistent and frequent with a routine with your dog daily, weekly, monthly, that then over time pays great dividends. So hopefully that helps a little bit with folks who have questions about doggy daycare. Um, this is Mike We Kiss Dog Training. Come back next time, we'll talk more dog. And uh, don't forget, send us emails, send us messages on social media, tell us what you want to talk about, and I'll be more than happy to do you guys later.